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Monday, November 22, 2010

Sit Back And Let Me Tell You About The Sadness

The elusive and usually plundering Poseidon's Savvy Sea-Raven.

Tlanchinol. Northeast of Mexico City. That will be my next birding trip come January. This trip will be my first exposure to tropical birding, and it should be downright facemelting. There's definitely a number of birds that will be down there that I haven't even heard of before (how embarrassing...what's a "foliage-gleaner"?). Motmots, caciques, euphonias......tasty exotic goodness. Better start studying. Just thinking about seeing these birds makes me a little weak at the knees, I'm not gonna lie to you.

Having that trip in my pocket is pretty nice. I'm a big proponent of Mexico in general (look at what they just did for climate change), even without the birding, so I reckon I'll be happy. Having gone north, east and west in the last couple of years, its about time I go South.

At first glance, this looks like a typical Heermann's Gull....

...but with wings unfurled, it looks more like a Willet. This partial albino was at Ocean Beach in San Francisco. And yes, that is a PT Cruiser in the background.

Of course, January feels a long way off, and the growing malaise that I feel at knowing a Brown Shrike has taken up residence 5 hours north of here (although my sources say it was not seen this morning) leaves me a bit unsettled. Between the Bean Goose, the Black-tailed Gull, and the Brown Shrike.....that's the bird to see. So what if Bean Goose is a first state record? Team Brown Shrike > Team Bean Goose.

Did I mention that "Bean Goose" was the term we used to describe a fart while I was on Buldir? Maybe that has something to do with my bias.

Mew Mew Mew Mew Mew Gull. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

Walking through San Francisco's Golden Gate Park yesterday, I couldn't help but be amazed/confused by the numbers and varieties of confusing hybrid gulls (mostly probably "Olympic" Gulls, which is some mix of Glaucous-winged and Western Gull genes). Even The Great Ornithologist, Felonious Jive was unable to confidently determine the genetic makeup of every bird. Also unusual were the number of old Russian people there.

I think that about does it today. I know you don't come here to read about me (BORING), but rather my bizarre, offensive, and occasionally original opinions about things, so I'll give you a dose of that next time. Tootles.

PS - Nonbirders, there is no such thing as a Poseidon's Savvy Sea-Raven. I wish there was though.